PLATTSBURGH -- People living longer is a tribute to medical science and a comfort to those approaching their golden years.

Whereas at the dawn of the 20th century the average person could expect to live 47 years, as we passed into the 21st century, we can realistically expect to live to the ripe, old age of 77.

What could be better?

Well, the sad fact is that we've progressed faster medically than socially. We know how to keep people alive, but we haven't figured out what to do with them in their declining years.

Few areas of the country have a more daunting assignment ahead than upstate New York, which has fewer young people and more senior citizens.

In 2006, 12.4 percent of the population of the United States was at least 65 years old; in New York state, the figure was 13.1 percent. At the same time, 6.8 percent of the population of the nation was 5 and under; in New York, that age group accounted for only 6.5 percent.

Think of New York's population as the flow of water through a hose: As the tap is turned up on one end, the nozzle is turned down on the other.

And those numbers are expected to rise dramatically over the next few decades. By 2010, there will be 75 million Baby Boomers between ages 46 and 64 in America; in 2020, 70 million Baby Boomers will be between 56 and 74; and in 2030, 58 million Baby Boomers will still be alive.

In fact, more than 70 million Americans will be over 65 by 2030. While longer life expectancy is a vast blessing to people reaching their golden years, it is creating serious and unprecedented problems for governments and social-service agencies trying to make their lives richer and more fulfilling.

Health care is one area in which the demographic trends are unavailing.

We have more people living longer, needing vastly more diverse medical attention, but we have fewer doctors, nurses and hospitals and nursing homes to provide it and fewer people to pay for it. More than 6 out of 10 Baby Boomers will be managing more than one chronic health condition by 2030, for instance.

The Baby Boomer glut of people is graduating from being producers to being recipients. More resources are needed now and into the future to care for them as they advance in age.

And there aren't enough young people growing up in New York, being educated and going to work here to replace them. Between 1995 and 2000, the state had to absorb a net loss of 110,000 college graduates to other states, in all professions.

People want to stay in their homes, but upstate New York is plagued by high real-estate values inflated, ironically, by the beauty and serenity of the region that draws wealthy, non-producing retirees and second-home owners who can overpay for property.

The aging upstaters desperately need transportation, but there is little in the sparsely populated, rural countryside.